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West Coast USA 23:05 - Feb 27 with 3737 views

Building on a thread on holidays in east coast USA I thought I would ask the crowds' advice on West Coast.

I plan to travel in August for 3-4 weeks with the wife and 3 kids.

I have a list of main places LA, San Fran, Vegas and Grand Canyon.

What I am after is some advice on more unusual places to stay, places to visit, things to do. Also best way to tour, hire a car, a camper van, flights and public transport.

Finally any places to absolutely avoid.

Thanks in advance.....

West Coast USA on 23:22 - Feb 27 with 3720 views

ShotKneesHoop

Avoid Norwich, Chelscum, Millwall and Stoke for starters. There's bound to be some towns named after them on the West Coast.

If you go to any bar in the USA, nsist on Pale Ale, the yanks make some good stuff but only the tourists are smart enough to drink it.

If you can get Mayflower IPA, don't bother to come back, you're already in heaven.

Why does it feel like R'SWiPe is still on the books? Yer Couldn't Make It Up.Well Done Me!

West Coast USA on 05:27 - Feb 28 with 3694 views

stowmarketrange

I'm off to the Grand Canyon and Vegas in late September and I hope to extend my stay to include a bit of Route 66 into California.I think the more interesting parts of the road are eastbound of Vegas,but others will know better.

West Coast USA on 07:03 - Feb 28 with 3676 views

Westy75

Yosemite is pretty amazing but will be pretty packed in August. Worth heading into parts of Utah (Monument Valley, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon) and New Mexico if you can get out that far, but that might be a trek if you're also going to be going to LA/San Francisco, but it's surprising how much ground you can cover (especially if you've got 3-4 weeks and are prepared to have a few days solid driving - to me the driving is one of the best parts of US trips anyway, particularly on the West side, just make sure you've got plenty of decent music and you're sorted).
Public transport is pretty much non-existent unless you're planning on doing any longer train journeys so i'd rule that out of any plans.
With 3 kids you might want to consider a camper or otherwise doing some camping - if you don't fancy tents they have some family orientated campgrounds where you can hire cabins (Kampgrounds of America - KOA)) which will sometimes work out a lot cheaper than hotels, but you probably need to book ahead for that and part of the fun of a trip like you're planning is playing it a bit by ear so if you can afford it, an RV is probably a decent bet, gives you a bit more flexibility. Just bear in mind that August is going to be pretty busy all over so booking well ahead for the rental etc is probably a must. Same for flights - get in there quick. We've always flown with Virgin and they've always been great - worth checking out their flydrives which may work out cheaper than flight and rental separately.

Have a great time mate.

West Coast USA on 07:20 - Feb 28 with 3669 views

Pommyhoop

Loved Vegas . And I'm talking ages ago when The Luxor was the new kid in town,and we stayed in it.I t must be much better now with the big new mega hotels...
I was best man for my mates wedding over there. Drive by wedding.They got married in a red Mustang with the roof down .Me as best man in the back seat and both me and him had Elvis wigs and shades on.
We drove from L.A to Vegas in the Mustang .Nice drive and when Vegas comes into view its mental..

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West Coast USA on 07:34 - Feb 28 with 3656 views

QPR_Nippon

Did a 3 week fly drive holiday there a few years back and was probably my favourite holiday ever. Did LA - Vegas - Grand Canyon - Death Valley - Yosemite - San Francisco, finishing with drive down the Highway 1 coastal road.

I particularly recommend a trip to Death Valley. Extraordinary place like nowhere else on earth ( that I've ever seen anyway).

West Coast USA on 08:30 - Feb 28 with 3621 views

Toast_R

Your better off booking the Grand Canyon tour in Vegas, better deals to be had.

I hired a car and drove up from L.A. Really great drive.

If your not too bothered about accomodation, Motel 6 is always good and dirt cheap and there's plenty of them.

West Coast USA on 08:36 - Feb 28 with 3614 views

eghamranger

San Francisco is superb, very touristy though. I went last year and did the Napa valley and Lake Tahoe areas which are fantastic. Nice town in napa called Sonoma which is lovely. The place is vast so you will have a manic time trying to get round everywhere.

West Coast USA on 09:14 - Feb 28 with 3600 views

toboboly

Try and take in a baseball game;

San Fransisco Giants, Oakland A's, LA Dodgers, LA Angels (Anaheim).

Sexy Asian dwarves wanted.

West Coast USA on 09:40 - Feb 28 with 3587 views

kingsburyR

L.A. is a dump with not specific central area. Sunset Boulevard is a dump also!

And the worst McDonalds I have ever had the pleasure of was in L.A.

Dont know why we bother. .... but we do!

West Coast USA on 10:08 - Feb 28 with 3570 views

thame_hoops

Sausalito (sp?) just over the golden great bridge, i think in marin county? its a beautiful almost Mediterranean type place on the coast, the winding roads are featured in clint eastwoods 'play misty for me' movie. stunning place.

West Coast USA on 11:14 - Feb 28 with 3546 views

W14Hoop

Yea, Sausilito is beautiful, just over the golden gate.

The drive along the PCH is beautiful, just imagine your playing Out Run from back in the day.

Zuma beach is great, kids will love it, dip your toes in the Pacific.

I concur with LA (downtown) and Hollywood blvd, not much there apart from cheap shops, but obviously check the walk of fame if you’re there..

Drive along Santa Monica Blvd into West Hollywood then take a turn and check some of the real estate round there into Beverley Hills the money is incredible..

Santa Monica just has a great vive about it, great shopping there too. Sample the sights and sounds from the pier along the beach to Venice,

Santa Barbara is pleasant enough, the women will like the boutique-ee shops.

Don’t forget to visit In-N-Out burger, animal fries, mmmmmmmmmmm.

West Coast USA on 11:16 - Feb 28 with 3545 views

BrianMcCarthy

West Coast USA on 07:34 - Feb 28 by QPR_Nippon
Did a 3 week fly drive holiday there a few years back and was probably my favourite holiday ever. Did LA - Vegas - Grand Canyon - Death Valley - Yosemite - San Francisco, finishing with drive down the Highway 1 coastal road. I particularly recommend a trip to Death Valley. Extraordinary place like nowhere else on earth ( that I've ever seen anyway).

Almost word for word, Nippon, except I passed up on the Grand cnayon as we didn't have time and there was no pint rushing it.

LA - grand, nothing too different about it.
San Francisco - great craic, wild spot for a night out.
Death Valley - utterly amazing, just bewildering.
Yosemite - beautiful, highly recommended
Hughway 1 Drive - one of my traveling highlights. Loved Monetery and the Steinbeck connection, the drive from teher to Camel is stunning, the Pacific is "as blue as it was in my dreams" (Red, Shawshank), the grits and fried green tomatoes breakfast in San Luis Obispo one of teh finest meals I've ever had, and then we were in surfing territory. Great waves to be had in Malibu and the legendary Rincon, toured down to waves at Huntingdon, San Diego and La Jolla and it was all so serene.

Can't recommend any places to stay, sorry, we slummed it from day-to-day, but Yosemite, Death Valley and the Pacific Drive are simply astounding. Rent a convertible. Soak it in.

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West Coast USA on 11:44 - Feb 28 with 3530 views

peejaybee

Go on that glass sticky out thingy @ the Grand Canyon.Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If at first you dont succeed, pack up and f**k off home.

West Coast USA on 12:09 - Feb 28 with 3514 views

smegma

California/ SF. Look out for the 'crooked street', does what it says on the tin. Alcatraz, although very touristy , is a very good daytrip. Haight Ashbury for some decent music shops and if its your thing, loads of tie-dyed t-shirts, most of which seem to be Greatful Dead designs.Pier 39 for the best chowder ive ever had. City Lights bookshop on Broadway/Columbus, once a fave hangout of the 'beat poets'. Theres also a Beat Museum nearby nowadays.
The Stinking Rose Restaurant. Also on Columbus Ave. Everything is cooked in garlic. Even the ice cream and beer is garlic flavour. One of the weirdest experiences but the food and drinks were blinding.Garlic bread has about ten cloves on it whereas theres a chicken dish with 35 cloves !!
As said above , Highway # 1. Some of the most scenic driving in the world. Head south to Monterey via Santa Cruz . See the otters and seals living in the harbour. They have glass bottomed boat trips.
Drive a little further south and take a 'private road' that meanders through some really exclusive areas and you end up in Carmel. A lovely beach with stunning sunsets as most of this coastal area has.
Head north over the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito, a stunning bay area town which is a very exclusive town these days.There are great photo spots either side of the GG Bridge with great views across the Bay Area.

Vegas. You can book chopper or plane flights over the Canyon from here. BUT, we drove which makes the trip better as you could discover some little gems. We found the town of Laughlin which is directly south of LV. Another gambling town on the Colorado River, has a Mississippi steam boat hotel moored on the river. From there we went south again slightly to Lake Havasu City, which is the home of the original London Bridge. Its an English oasis in the desert with red phone boxes, red post offices and boozers selling decent English beers. The bridge straddles a huge man made river and lake resort where the rich and famous hang out. From Havasu you can pick up the original route 66 which snakes through the mountains in the middle of nowhere where you'll come across the small cowboy town of Oatman,Arizona. How small ? Its about 150 yards long and looks like a film set for any of the cowboy films you've ever seen. They stage a touristy 'gun fight at the ok corral' every day in the street.
Vegas ? As you say you have kids, make sure you have a pool in the hotel as it gets really really hot in the summer. I remember seeing a thermometer outside a bank that said 32 degrees and that was at 2am !!!! The majority of Vegas hotels have free shows outside on the strip. Look them up on youtube, there are hundreds on there, the kids and adults will be amazed.

West Coast USA on 12:52 - Feb 28 with 3483 views

francisbowles

Get some bikes and cycle the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE in San Fran. I would also recommend Haight street and if you buy records/CD's Amoeba is a must. They also have a great branch in Hollywood.

Take in San Diego as well my favourite city. From there you can take a trolley (light train) down to the Mexican border and wander across into Tijuana (be aware of personal security, take some advice if unsure) for a couple of hours. Also you can take a short bus ride from SD to Coronado Island relax on beach, tour island by bike. San Diego zoo, very good.

Oceanside is just north of SD just over an hour south of LA, a nice place to stay if you can find an apartment for a few days. Great beaches and a pier you can fish from.

In LA, again you can bike along for miles along the beaches Redondo, Manhatten, Venice etc.

If you have time, Seattle is also a great city but quite a lot further north.

West Coast USA on 12:55 - Feb 28 with 3478 views

francisbowles

Just remembered, La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) is a nice place to visit/stop at for a couple of hours. Seals in the harbour etc.

West Coast USA on 13:21 - Feb 28 with 3456 views

gobbles

Greatest thing to do is drive the Pacific Coast Highway from Carmel south through the Big Sure. Do not miss Hearst Castle at San Simeon, simply one of the most amazing places I have ever been. You have to do a tour, give yourself an afternoon there, but you will never forget it.
http://hearstcastle.org/

West Coast USA on 14:55 - Feb 28 with 3417 views

BlackCrowe

We did this last year Loftus.

3 nights San Fran
2 nights Sonoma
4 nights Yosemite
2 nights Monterrey
3 nights Santa Monica
6 nights Laguna Beach

It was a great trip though we probably spend a night too long in Yosemite (it is beautiful though).

San Fran - obvious things such as tram ride, pier 39, Alcatraz. Less obvious things include a tour round the city and over Golden Gate bridge in a vintage firetruck and a ferry across the bay to Sausalito for lunch and a mooch round the shops.

Sonoma - beautiful countryside with vineyards open to the public for wine-tasting everywhere. Very kid-friendly even in the wineries. It gets hot here so a pool is important.

Yoesmite - we stayed at Evergreen Lodge just outside the park entrance and it was fantastic. Kids loved it and roamed free - it was like being on summer camp but without the camping bit. Great poolside barbeques, toasting smores on the fire, great bar, etc

Monterrey - the actual town is pretty underwhelming in my opinion but it saved by the most incredible aquarium i've ever been to. Sea otters (and sealions) everywhere in the bay - go out on an escorted kayak trip for a couple hours - kids loved and so did we.

Santa Monica - great drive along the coast to get there from Monterrey. Love this place and can't spend enough time in kooky Venice Beach. We did Universal studios from here and also half a day seeing the sights of LA.

Laguna Beach - beautiful beach, fab small holiday town with very good restaurants and accomodation for most budgets. We did Disneyland from here. Never got down to San Diego - wish we had - but just wanted to beach it by this stage.

Expensive old trip though and the credit card is still recovering. Don't how old your kids are (mine are 12 and 9). PM me if you want any hotel, restaurant, bar recommendations.

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Kitchen threads or polls?

West Coast USA on 15:43 - Feb 28 with 3397 views

Monahoop

San Francisco, Yosemite if it's not been burnt away by fires are great places. With the former it is a great city though avoid venturing into the Mexican quarter at dark unless your're with someone in the know.
Avoid Oakland too. Carries a bad reputation and is not a nice place.
The highlight for me was Napa Valley. A perfect climate, blue skies and good wine even by US standards. One day when I was there, the skies seemed to be buzzing with vintage WW2 aircraft, Harvards, Mustangs, Hellcats etc and a bloody great Liberator bomber. Seemed so surreal what with all that wine and lovely sunshine. Probably all went to my head!!
Have a good time when you go.

There aint half been some clever bastards.

West Coast USA on 15:55 - Feb 28 with 3388 views

BrianMcCarthy

West Coast USA on 15:43 - Feb 28 by Monahoop

And don't go South of Mission" (Street)!

One night, we were there in a dodgy hotel. My sister, who'd fallen earlier in the night was (now that the liquor was wearing off) in agony, and pounded on her door.

I called an ambulance. It arrived the same night. The two hippy paramedics were gormless. The sister had no travel insurance, so we smiled away with them. Even when one of them started chatting her up. They wanted to put her in the ambulance. It was decided I should go too.

Downstairs, I was told to get in the front. The paramedic in the driver's seat enquired if I'd ever driven an ambulance. I asked if he had. He hadn't. I asked where the driver was. He looked at the lad in the back chatting my kid sister up. I remembered that we were broke and told him to drive as best he could. If he couldn't hack it, I told him, I wasn't that drunk anymore and I'd take over.

We made it, and I never had to drive. It was the slowest ambulance ride possible. Rats passed us out.

In the hospital, the staff were playing cards. They asked me to sit in. I did. I won. They waived the insurance costs.

You should break your ankle in Frisco. It's great craic.

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West Coast USA on 16:05 - Feb 28 with 3380 views

marky67

thanks to england failing to make the world cup in the usa in 1994, myself and 3 mates of mine spent a month travelling around the states while the tournament was on instead and it was probably one of the best times of my life.

hired a car after spending 5 days in vegas and headed west to sanfrancisco via la and driving up the pch1 which as some people have already mentioned some of the best scenary going passing through carmel which the actor clint eastwood used to be mayor of and spent a couple of nights in big sur up in the forrest which brought back memories of camping with the cubs when i was around 10 years old.

West Coast USA on 17:48 - Feb 28 with 3336 views

BklynRanger

You'll definitely want to drive down Highway 1 through Big Sur (south of SF).

I don't know if you want to camp, but there are a lot of good campsites in that area - Julie Pfieffer Burns State Park, Kirk Creek, Plasket Creek (those two are near each other and fill up quickly). My favourite campsite in the U.S. is El Capitan State Beach near San Luis Obispo but only if you can get one of the sites by the Ocean front. Camping would reduce the costs a bit too. Just buy a tent in Walmart and donate/chuck it afterwards. The weather gets drier and more predictably sunny as soon as you're south of Carmel anyway but it's 1000% better than Britain in general.

For the National Parks in the South West you'll have to bear in mind the time of year. Death Valley is a definite choice and could be combined with a trip to Mono lake but DV is definitely hot that time of year. Joshua Tree is nice but the campsites can be a bit noisy I find. Desert places at higher altitude would be more comfortable. Utah is a great shout if you can drive it. Just check into the mileage and out of state allowances of the car hire firms. Nearly all of these places are well set up for RVs so that's an option, but they are pricey.

[Post edited 28 Feb 2014 17:49]

West Coast USA on 19:10 - Feb 28 with 3306 views

ted_hendrix

I turned up at the Grand Canyon one Monday morning and was blown away, about 3 hours later I fcked off and hit the South Rim road as the tourists at the canyon were bastards.
I based myself in a town called Williams North of Flagstaff where the old route 66 signs are still up on the sidewalk.
Do Walnut County it is stunning, I have a passion for American Indian history and I must have visited and hung out in about four or five reservations out in the desert that are beautifully maintained and totally chilled out (yes, yes I'm an ex hippy).
I could spend Months in Arizona off the beaten track, that's what you need to do, get off the beaten track.
Its a beautiful State.

My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic.

West Coast USA on 20:19 - Feb 28 with 3283 views

LoftusR

Cheers guys this is great.

Fantastic places to visit, stay and eat!!!. Any advice on quirky things to do??

Btw my kids are 10, 7 & 4 so some of the national parks may be a bit beyond us if we are looking at long walks. I perfer short walks followed by beer by the pool.

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